JERUSALEM — Three armed militants slipped into Israel from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula yesterday, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding another before being shot dead, the Israeli army said.
It was at least the fourth cross-border attack in just over a year — violence that has persisted despite an Egyptian army and police crackdown on Sinai militants begun last month.
The latest incident underscored Israeli concern about faltering security in Sinai since the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Israel is now building a fence along the desert border to improve security.
“Three terrorists infiltrated from Sinai into Israel and opened fire towards . . . soldiers guarding the border. The terrorists were well armed and carried explosive belts upon their bodies,” Israeli army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said yesterday.